I note with interest that under the 'forthcoming releases' section of the Trojan web-site that there are several tracks featured that have already seen the light of day through B+F releases. Tommy McCook's 'Riding West' and Jah Stitch are just two that spring to mind.

"Trojan/Sanctuary just seemingly put out anything they feel like these days."

Nah, I don't think so, someone must have licensed those tracks to Sanctuary, I nominate Bunny 'Striker' Lee as the most likely culprit as he has a bit of previous for double dealing and old habits die hard I'm afraid.

Have you considered the possibility that they may no longer be the owners of that material?

Also you might like to consider the possibility that B+F have licensed the tracks on the forthcoming Trojan releases. God knows what they do these days, but they ain't releasing any new material on their own label also it might be easier to lease stuff out to Trojan and let them do all the leg work.

personally i really dig the DBC compilation that trojan put out a couple months ago. yeah sure we all got most of it already (but i was surprised at how much of it i didnt have) but the presentation, packaging, "jingles" (more like specials in many cases) and the running order are all top notch and very nice. the liner notes especially were great, running down the history of dread broadcasting company, something that may be very common knowledge to those over in the UK but something we in the states know little about (speaking for myself) other than that i got a few buttons and a t shirt at one time. those t shirts were total RUFF and i always wanted more, but by that time i couldnt find any.

so, trojan has my support these days. they seem to be putting out interesting stuff from nice masters and thats good enough for me, along with knowing firsthand that they are seeking out artists or producers and making sure they get money in hand, which i always understood to be a problem with the "trojan" label proper.

though i would have to amend my prior post by saying they are putting out some pretty weak stuff sourced from the RAS catalog. that catalog is about 20% killer, 30% okay and 50% dreck...they seem to be concentrating on the dreck (gregory sings dennis, dean fraser, etc).

well i'd take their recent releases over B+F's easily, the Phyllis Dillon, Alton Ellis, Skatalites, Horace Andy and Let's Do Rocksteady sets from the last few years are all excellent - nothing much exciting in the forthcoming releases, though, unless the roots and culture box will be as good as their roots box

Lots of quality tunes, some filler and some stuff that most people (on this forum at least) will have 5 times over already. I really don't like the Box Set format and I'm currently leading a one man campaign against them on the Trojan forum (and loosing of course!)
http://www.trojanrecords.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1183

i can't have anything against a series that gave me Carlton Jackson's "History" but true enough sometimes the selection is a bit strange and a lot of those boxes could've fitted on 2 discs instead of 3 but i guess you can't legally call a 2 disc compilation a "box set"

Yes, can't say I'm a big fan of the box sets either - got about 2 or 3 of them. Of course most of them contain the odd good tune I didn't otherwise have (the ones that aren't based on some stupid notion in the first place like "Sunshine Reggae" or similar twaddle). But few of them are discs I'd put on and leave on - they just contain a few more tracks for the collection.

Having said that, the reason Trojan won't stop doing them is that they are, in my experience, perceived by a lot of punters out there as good value for money and consequently many of the better ones are among Trojan's best-selling product. It's a good marketing concept - Joe Public has heard a few good rocksteady tunes and fancies hearing some more, so he buys a cheap Trojan Rocksteady Box Set because he knows Trojan as top (as in best known) reggae reissue label and reckons (rightly) that he will get quite a few more good rocksteady tunes for not very much money. Which is fine if he hasn't got loads of rocksteady already. Shame about the packaging (though at least it's from renewable sources...), the lack of any particular attempt to sequence the tracks and the usually pretty uninteresting sleeve notes, but for someone on a budget some of them are a good way of picking up a lot of good tunes. I just can't personally stand the sheer randomness of them.

Guess it's always going to be the fate of Trojan to be damned with faint praise by Baffers... but when they do get things right they generally cloak an excellent compilation in an iffy sleeve with a couple of tracks possibly having licensing issues ...